GAO: bid protests are up by 3%

Sustainment rate is down, but “effectiveness” is up, GAO says

Federal contract bid protests filed with the Government Accountability Office were up by 3%, rising to 2,647, for fiscal 2015, according to the GAO’s annual bid protest report to Congress.

That was a slower rate of increase than in the previous year, when the number of bid protests filed rose by 5%.

Of the 587 protests GAO decided on their merits in fiscal 2015, 12% were in favor of the petitioner, totaling 68 such decisions.

That is the lowest sustainment rate of the last five years, including fiscal 2014, with a 13% sustainment rate; fiscal 2013, 17%; fiscal 2012, 19%; and fiscal 2011, 16%.

However, the GAO said the percentage of cases in which protesters obtained relief through agency corrective action increased.

The petitioners’ “effectiveness” rate, which counts cases in which there were agency corrections as well as GAO sustainments, was 45% for fiscal 2015, up from 43% in fiscal 2014, the GAO said.

More information: GAO bid protest report http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/674134.pdf

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GAO: bid protests are up by 3%

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